NAWILIWILI — Some people never got to go home after Hurricane ‘Iniki battered the island, said Dickie Chang, a former head concierge and head of guest services at the Westin Kaua‘i Resort, now the Kaua‘i Marriott Resort & Beach Club.
NAWILIWILI — Some people never got to go home after Hurricane ‘Iniki battered the island, said Dickie Chang, a former head concierge and head of guest services at the Westin Kaua‘i Resort, now the Kaua‘i Marriott Resort & Beach Club.
“After Lihu‘e Airport re-opened following the hurricane, some people just left with whatever they had,” Chang, a current member of the Kaua‘i County Council, said. “Some people had no homes to return to because the hurricane wrecked it and everything they owned. Others had to leave for other stations. They never had a chance to say goodbye.”
Twenty years following Hurricane ‘Iniki, Chang and a group of former Westin Kaua‘i Resort employees are coordinating a reunion to allow people a chance to reunite, reminisce about the days of the Westin Kaua‘i and remember the events of Sept. 11, 1992.
A banquet on Sept. 21 at the Kaua‘i Marriott Resort and Beach Club, the former site of the Westin Kaua‘i Resort, will open the weekend of activities.
Admission is $50 per person and a picture is $15.
“We’ll be showing old photographs and footage of the former Westin resort,” Chang said. “Saturday is a free day and free night, although some of us are getting together at Rob’s Good Times Grill in the Rice Shopping Center for a night of dancing.”
A picnic on Sept. 22 at the Po‘ipu Beach Park brings the weekend of remembering to a close.
“This year marks the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Westin Kaua‘i Resort,” Chang said. “I still remember when then-Mayor Tony Kunimura and Chris Hemmeter turned on the switch to the escalator.”
The resort opened with 846 rooms and a staff of 1,655 employees, Chang said.
Less than five years following the opening of the resort, which ushered in a new level of visitor hospitality to Kaua‘i, the hurricane struck and the resort closed until June 26, 1995 when it re-opened as the Kaua‘i Marriott, Chang said.
“A lot of the original employees with the Westin Kaua‘i kept in touch with each other,” he said. “A lot of the original employees were hired by the Kaua‘i Marriott, but a lot of went their own ways and many who were close to retirement have passed on.”
Chang said there is much to remember and reflect on because of the many positive changes that have taken place on Kaua‘i since the hurricane.
“When the storm hit, no one knew the magnitude, or the power ‘Iniki had,” Chang said. “We had 1,800 guests in the house, many of whom were turned away at the airport by the hurricane.”
The ballroom, at that time being the largest neighbor island facility, became a refuge for not only the guests, but also for the resort’s employees and their families, Chang remembers.
When the chandeliers in the room started shaking, the engineers said we needed to “crack the doors” and we moved the guests into the back of the house, an area usually reserved for the resort staff, he said.
“The beach wing was damaged, the Presidential Suite, although its foundation was strong, had broken windows and the waves were breaking against the resort at a level above the pool where the waterfall is,” Chang said, remembering how he could run through the resort and witness the damage being wrought by the wind, rain and seas.
“But we were blessed because Steven Spielberg and his crew were on the final day of filming (‘Jurassic Park’) and were in the house,” Chang said. “When the winds subsided, they had two generators we could use to help clear ourselves out of the tangle of trees and debris.”
The disruption of the storm was too much for the opulent resort and the doors closed, its employees, now numbering 1,100 from its opening 1,655, trying to rebuild their lives.
“This banquet and reunion is our last hurrah,” Chang said. “It’s not just for the employees. If you were a guest, vendor, a service provider or anyone who was connected to the Westin Kaua‘i, and there are a lot of community businesses, this is an opportunity to come together, again,” Chang said.
For more information, or reservations, call Brenda at 651-5350, Bob at 283-2083 or Chang at 635-8800.
